Ann Vinciguerra: Lost & Overlooked Ski Areas

Piano Battaglia

Find links to all the places in my Lost and Overlooked Ski Areas series.

The Sicilian landscape is dotted with beaches, citrus groves, and ancient ruins. The Mediterranean island, only 100 miles from Africa in its southern reaches, feels worlds away from the snowy Alps and rugged Apennines of mainland Italy.

But if you explore further, you'll find possibly as many as four ski areas, opportunities for backcountry skiing, and at least one groomed cross-country track tucked into Sicily's higher elevations.

Other than Nebraska, Sicily might be the most random place I’ve encountered skiing. As an avid skier, traveler, and dreamer, I am drawn to stories that challenge my assumptions. So, when I discovered skiing in Sicily, I immediately wanted to know more. Not just about the slopes and the runs, but about the people who ski there and what skiing means to the community.

Unsurprisingly, as is the case with skiing in most out-of-the-way destinations, information was hard to track down. If you can tell me more about skiing in Sicily, I would love to hear from you. Please leave your thoughts in the comments section of this post (You can do so anonymously), or you can contact me directly using the Get in Touch feature on the homepage of this blog.

After seeing a Sicilian ski area up close and doing some research, I suspect that if you're seeking bluebird days and polished resorts, Sicily is not the destination for you. For more adventurous, curious folks, this Mediterranean island offers the chance to make turns on an active volcano, swoosh down mountains with views of the Ionian sea, and explore ancient beech forests on skis.

Here’s what I know...

Madonie Mountains

On our recent trip to Sicily Mike and I discovered a ski area in the Madonie mountains. This area, Piano Battaglia, sits at 1,605 meters (5,265 feet) above sea level and has a vertical drop of 900 feet. It is named after an 11th century battle (battaglia) between the Normans and the Arabs.

Piano Battaglia is located along a sweeping bend in the road in a karst depression separating two of the highest peaks the Madonie mountains, Pizzo Carbonara at 1,979 meters (6,492 feet) and Monte Mufara at 1,865 meters (6,118 feet).

Here is a webcam of the road, which today shows more snow on the ground than we have in the city of Bozeman.

Featuring a chairlift, a surface lift, and a carpet lift, most of Piano Battaglia's runs are cut into the trees, and apparently there are Mount Etna views from the summit. The photo you see here was taken from the summit of Pizzo Carbonara.

Ski lifts were first developed on Piano Battaglia in the 1950s or 1960s but were closed for a number of years. The lifts are running again thanks to a local ski club and possibly support from the city of Palermo. Palermo seems to have some sort of role in skiing here as their sign is prominently displayed on the lift.

Most years, Piano Battaglia is open to skiers from late December/early January until late February/sometime in March. The ski area map found above comes from this page (https://skimap.org/skiareas/view/4482) and you can scroll through the link to see fun maps throughout the years.

Piano Battaglia also boasts a ski school, places to rent ski gear, a restaurant/pub, and a few nearby cottages that look like they were plucked from the Austrian Alps.

Piano Battagllia Ski School (Scuola sci)

Rifugio Marini, founded in 1947 and run by the Palermo chapter of the Italian Alpine Club, is located within walking distance of the lifts and features lodging and a restaurant. Further down the road is Rifugio Merlino, also run by the local alpine club, but a web search did not give much information.

Piano Battaglia and the Madonie mountains are less then a two hour drive from Palermo and the northern Sicilian coast, and I hear that in the summer the area is popular with locals and visitors escaping the heat. But I couldn't find out much about who might go here in the winter, but you can click here for a first-hand account of a ski trip to the Madonie mountains. It is written by someone who works at a local car rental agency. Thankfully, it isn't an overly cliched and polished travel magazine article but it captures the simplicity and authenticity of skiing in this surprising destination.

"My friends and I usually go to ski school in the mornings, take a long walk in the woods in the afternoons," the author says. "And in the evenings we end the day with a dinner at the Rifugio with traditional dishes such as pappardelle with wild boar sauce or venison, relaxing in front of a fireplace that warms the body but above all the heart."

You can go here for information about Piano Battaglia (Including summer activities in the area). Some of the links are broken but there are phone numbers and email addresses.

Madonie Eye Candy

Some social media links to the area:

Beautiful photos from a snowy day in December 2024
From February 2025
Stunning photos year round

Mount Etna

At 11,165 feet above sea level (3,357 meters), Mount Etna is Europe's tallest and most active volcano. We did not visit Etna during our trip, but I knew the area had skiing as Mountain Tracks (the company I used for my first two hut tours in the Alps) offers a guided trip there. Further research upon my return home revealed the following.

The coastal city of Catania is located at the foot of Etna and this massive volcano has two ski areas: Etna Sud (Rifugio Sapienza) in Nicolosi and
Etna Nord (Piano Provenzana) in Linguaglossa.

Etna Sud offers 2,276 vertical feet of skiing and the highest lift deposits people 2,604 meters (8,534 feet) up the 11K+ foot volcano. Etna Nord's vertical drop is 1,725 feet with lifts at 2,336 meters (7,664 feet) above sea level. Ski touring on Etna was popular before the first lifts were built in the 1950s.

I grabbed this Etna maps from here. Take a look at the link to see fun maps from over the years.

Compared to skiing in Madonie, a web search reveals a lot more information on skiing Etna - both lift served and backcountry. Today a number of folks offer guided tour. Check this one out from Mountain Tracks. They're heading there this February. A web search reveals other opportunities for guided ski touring with many trips lead by certified IFMGA guides.

This link is a good place to start and this link has webcams showing that as I type this, sizeable snow banks line the roads.
Here's an article from November 2025 that gives lots of info on lift served skiing and off-piste tours.
Click here for info and great photos
I found several first-hand account of skiing on Etna and enjoyed these: A BBC article from 2024 and this blogger's story written ten years prior.
If you Google skiing Etna, you'll find no shortage of videos as skiing near an erupting volcano makes for very exciting content. Check out this video from the BBC on December 27, 2025.

Even more skiing in Sicily?

We saw this sign when we were in Polizzi Generosa. So, in addition to Piano Battaglia and the slopes on Etna, there could be a fourth ski area, Piano Zucchi. We didn't come across it during our travels through the Madonie mountains and a web search produced nothing.

In the Nebrodi mountains, located in between the Madonie mountains and Mount Etna, there's a groomed cross-country skiing track near the area's highest peak, Monte Soro (1847 meters, 6059 feet above sea level). This area is about 60 miles or so from Messina on the coast, and I suspect it is extremely quiet in the winter.

Here is my source of information on the Nebrodi cross-country skiing. Sadly, it mentions that a nearby mountain hut, the only place to stay in the winter, was turned into a boutique hotel. With everything becoming more upscale and expensive at ski areas closer to home, it bummed me out to hear that this is also happening in Sicily.